Disposable articles for the absorption and containment of urine and other body exudates are generally known in the art. Such disposable articles have found particular utility in the fields of infant care, child care, feminine care, and adult incontinency. Present commercially available disposable articles for such uses are generally unitary and are comprised of a liquid permeable top liner, a liquid impermeable backsheet, and an absorbent core disposed between the top liner and the backsheet. Disposable articles of this type effectively and efficiently absorb and contain urine or other body exudates. Such articles are designed for a single use and are simply discarded after use in a waste receptacle prior to being transported to a landfill. This ease and convenience of disposal has contributed to the increasing popularity of such disposable absorbent articles.
The vast majority of the disposable absorbent articles of the aforementioned type have been designed to be disposed of in solid waste landfills. Such articles are delivered to landfills in their entirety along with fecal waste or urine contained on the used disposable articles. The unitary design of disposable articles have limited disposal options for consumers, and have not generally provided a sanitary means for the disposal of fecal material, such as by flushing the material down the toilet where it can be treated by the sewage system. This results in odor-causing fecal waste and bacteria being stored in the consumer's residence, child care centers, adult assisted living centers, or hospitals, prior to transporting the used disposable articles to the landfill. By directing used disposable articles to landfills, rather than to wastewater treatment facilities, fecal matter and bacteria may contaminate the groundwater in landfills and may spread diseases. Furthermore, the amount of disposable articles that have been discarded in landfills have led to the negative environmental impact that disposable articles have imposed on landfill capacity. The relatively few products that have been designed specifically to be disposed of by flushing, at least partially, suffer from a number of drawbacks.
A disposable article with a flushable insert is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,959; U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,591; U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,457; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,342 issued to T. H. Roessler et al. These patents disclose a disposable article incorporating a flushable insert positioned between a removable cover and a non-flushable garment shell. The insert includes a carrier sheet with bonded ends to encase absorbent material formed of wood pulp fluff and high-absorbency materials that absorb more than 25 times their weight in water. The garment shell includes a top bodyside liner that is liquid permeable and a liquid impermeable backsheet that are bonded along their entire periphery, with a secondary absorbent body of wood pulp fluff and high-absorbency materials between the top liner and backsheet, and the shell also includes containment flaps, and leg and waist elastic members. The cover is attached using peelable bonds along its periphery to the shell's top liner, and the insert is held in place between the cover and the shell's top liner. After use, the insert is removed to be flushed by breaking the peelable bonds of the cover to pull open the cover, and the remaining portions are not flushed which comprise the garment shell, and instead, are disposed in a landfill, composted or recycled. The patents do not anticipate and do not disclose the garment shell's top liner is torn open. The patents do not anticipate and teach against disposing a gap between an edge of the garment shell's top liner and backsheet for tearing open the garment shell, since the shell's leg and waist elastic members are attached to and positioned between the top liner and backsheet of the shell's edges, which inhibit a gap from being formed between the edges of the top liner and backsheet to tear open the shell.
A disposable article with a flushable absorbent insert is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,623,466 issued to I. Richardson. This patent discloses a disposable absorbent article that includes a disposable diaper shell consisting of a liquid permeable top liner to a liquid impermeable backsheet that are permanently bound together in facing relation along their entire periphery, which does not include an absorbent core, and instead the diaper shell includes a flushable absorbent insert positioned between the top liner and backsheet. The insert includes an absorbent core encased by a liquid permeable outer liner using a releasable binding, and an adhesive fastening means, which attaches the insert to the backsheet to keep the insert from shifting out of place inside the diaper shell. Alternatively, the insert may be used independently, without the diaper shell, and in combination with a reusable diaper cover with the insert's adhesive fastening means attaching the flushable insert to the reusable diaper cover. After use, pulling tabs on the top liner and perforations are used to detach a removable portion of the top liner, to create an opening along the top liner of the diaper shell. After detaching the removable liner, the insert remains attached to the diaper shell with the fastening means, since the insert is always used with the fastening means. In order to release the insert's absorbent core, peeling tabs are used to open the insert along the insert's releasable binding. The patent does not anticipate and does not disclose that the pulling tabs and the peeling tabs are situated to provide sanitary placements for tearing open the article. The patent does not anticipate and does not disclose that a gap is disposed between an edge of the top liner and the backsheet to tear open the article, since the top liner and backsheet are permanently bound together in facing relation along their entire periphery, and therefore, the patent teaches against having a gap disposed between an edge of the top liner and the backsheet to tear open the article.
A diaper combination of a reusable diaper cover with a flushable insert is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,002,762 to S. Allison-Rogers on Aug. 23, 2011, and sold as gDiapers. The Allison-Rogers patent discloses the same elements as those in U.S. Pat. No. 6,623,466 issued to I. Richardson on Sep. 23, 2003 in the aforementioned reference, such as a flushable insert used in combination with a reusable article, and a fastening means attaching the insert to the reusable article. The Allison-Rogers patent discloses a fastening means for the insert having an elasticized pouch with snap fasteners, Velcro, as well as an adhesive fastening means as used in the Richardson patent. The Richardson patent discloses the flushable insert is designed to be opened after use; however, the Allison-Rogers patent does not anticipate and does not disclose that the flushable insert is opened after use, and does not disclose that the insert includes ripping features.
A diaper combination of a reusable diaper cover with a flushable insert pad is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,662 to A. James. The reusable diaper cover has the same hour glass shape as the insert pad and a fence that is designed to house the pad insert to hold it in place within the reusable diaper cover. The insert pad comprises an absorbent core of fluff pulp and a super-absorbent polymer mix between two out layers of non-woven sheets, and a protruding absorbent dam formed of extra super-absorbent polymer mix filler for leakage containment and absorption. The insert pad has two parallel longitudinal lines of perforation that intersect the absorbent dam. The patent discloses that the insert pad is easily torn into three equal parts along the two parallel longitudinal lines of perforation, and “when torn the entire pad is conveniently flushed not requiring two steps” of “stripping off” the insert pad's outer layers, since “this process is time consuming”. The dam also inhibits the outer layers from being detached from the insert; thus, the patent teaches against detaching the outer layers from the article to release the absorbent core.
A diaper having a detachable and flushable portion of the topsheet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,842,838 to D. A. Gellert. This patent discloses a disposable diaper comprising an absorbent pad between a liquid permeable top liner and a liquid impermeable backsheet. The top liner includes perforations to remove a portion of the top liner to flush. The patent discloses that diaper remainder is not flushed and is disposed separately, which includes the “strong” absorbent pad bonded to the backsheet. The patent teaches against a “weak” absorbent pad that may be released and flushed after detaching the top liner, disclosing that the invention “eliminates the need to have a weak water-dispersible absorbent pad”.
A diaper pad that is intended to be completely disposed of in a toilet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,211,147 to P. O. Pherson et al. discloses. The diaper pad includes a paper web outer wrapper, absorbent core comprising wood pulp fluff pads, and paper reinforcing strips. The outer wrapper encases the absorbent core. The absorbent core includes parallel embossed channels to distribute fluids. The wrapper and absorbent core are joined along waist-side edges and embossed using the paper reinforcing strips to form a rigid waist band that is strong enough to permit the use of safety pins. The outer wrapper is also embossed to the absorbent core longitudinally to allow the diaper to be folded along the parallel channels to contour the diaper with pleats that are embossed in place. After use, the user begins tearing at the embossed paper reinforcing strip of the waist band and along tearing lines formed from the absorbent core's inner parallel channels. The patent does not disclose that the outer wrapper includes ripping features. Further, the invention design inhibits detaching the outer wrapper from the insert, and inhibits releasing the absorbent core, since the absorbent core is embossed to the waist band and to the outer wrapper along the longitudinal channels, as well as confined inside the pleated folds.
These attempts to provide disposable articles that are detachable and flushable have not been entirely successful. Some of the disposable articles are complex and involve multiple steps to detach and flush the various components. Other articles are ineffective at significantly reducing the amount of materials disposed in the landfill. The disposal process has the potential of being unsanitary on the user's hands while handling the flushable components after use. With articles using high-absorbency materials, there exists potential to clog the toilet depending on the article's size and the toilet's flushing capability. In addition, contamination of the water supply may occur when flushing high-absorbency materials made from synthetic or inorganic materials. Further, many of these absorbent articles use elaborate designs requiring additional components to provide features that allow the articles to be detached and flushed. The additional components include: removable flushable inserts, fastening adhesives for inserts, elastic pouches for inserts, customized reusable diaper covers for the accompanying inserts, absorbent dams for inserts, channels to distribute fluids, pleats to form absorbent barriers, removable covers, and secondary absorbent bodies. The addition of these features presents numerous difficulties that increase the expense and complexity of production.
The production of disposable absorbent articles is generally considered a capital-intensive business. This is a consequence of the complex machinery required to manufacture product from incoming material streams at economically-feasible production rates. Any innovation that adds components or materials to the product produced, consequently increases material costs and complexity of production, which corresponds to increasing per-article costs for the manufacturer, and consequently, this additional cost is passed on to the consumer.